I hate house cleaning. I really do. It was a source of many arguments with my girlfriend in the past, but I think she got used to it now.
If you hate it also (or even if you like it), here are some DIY projects that can hel keep your house clean with a help of 3d printer.

We thought about buying roomba vaccum robot but it is just too expensive here in Croatia. There are several homemade Roomba clone projects but Jake Lee made a 3d printable DIY vacuum cleaner robot named Panda.

Florian Maurer developed a DIY sensor to register nozzle clogging and print failure.

It is easy to make since it consists of a rotary encoder, some thin foam tape, and some 3D printed parts with Arduino used to listen to the grey code from the rotary encoder and send the data over serial to a Python script.

When the filament slows down or stops due to a nozzle clog, the Python script plays a notification sound to let you know that you should check your nozzle and that your print might fail.

Here is an interesting presentation on using different materials like clay, rubber, paper, wood, salt and other for 3d printing of buildings and architectural elements. The presentation is held by Ronald Rael from Emerging Objects.

Jun 21, 2015

EasyWelder is a tool that will enable you to weld and splice filament pieces together.

It is described by manufacturer as:

3D printers use as raw material plastic filament of about 360 m long, coiled. With a coil, we can make some items. But when there remain only a few meters, it is often impossible to use it. This filament is then unusable or discarded. Considering the price, it's infuriating.
It also happens that the filament breaks during printing or on the coil.
The current size of the filament coils do not allow to print large parts. The best solution would be to link together the filaments of each coil. Thus, the size of the printable parts would be no more limited.

From these findings, I have sought to develop a plastic filament welder to:

Print large parts.

Reduce filament waste.

Combine different colors and / or filament materials.

Making life easier for 3D printers.

Saving money.

The EasyWelder can weld the following plastic filaments:

PLA

PVA

ABS

HIPS

NinjaFlex and other similar filaments

PEG

Nylon

Here is how it works:

It is priced at 69-80 euro range. You decide if it's worth it. I wander if there are any DIY solutions?

Chad Bridgewater is a maker that uses old machines and converts them into 3d printers and other digital fabrication devices. They have a great retro style. See his previous work here, it is a must-study if you are a fan of more rough and raw retro design.

Now he is converting an old metal toolbox into a custom 3d printer. I really like the look and convergence of old and modern. The box he uses is a Huot toolbox that was once used as a "Blower Repair Kit", the toolbox has a fold-down front panel door.

Here is a latest video presentation from video series showing each step of the process:

WOW! I really dig this concept of five axis multi-tool! It gives you 5 axis CNC machine that includes milling and 3d printing heads, touch probe, hot wire-cutter and a special mount for custom tools. This is probably a dawn of low cost multi-axis and multi-tool digital fabrication devices.

The company that is developing it also created open source Grasshopper script that allows programming of this 5-axis machine.

It was sold on pre-order from Kickstarter campaign for £4,499 (about $7000). The pack included:

Kalle Lüütsepp made this simple and low cost wood based small 3d printer. It can probably be sourced for some 150 euro. Hopefully he will open source the build files sometime in the future.
Alle the files to make this printer are available on Thingiverse:

Like all Micron 3DP extruders & hot-ends, the Cobra extruder line comes with the patent pending easily replaceable nozzle and guide.

It takes less than a minute to switch to a different nozzle size or to a different material, without changing the calibration of the Z height.

Reliable design: Cobra extruders use a small but powerful 1:13 planetary geared motor equipped with a 304 stainless steel hobbed gear. Including a special tooth profile which provides strong filament gripping.

Continuous idler bearing with preload adjustment, using 2 set screws

Easy opening service door that maintains idler bearing preload while opening and closing.

Short and Smooth filament feeding design that prevents the filament from jamming after passing the hobbed gear.

Jason Brownstein published a detailed tutorial on how to embed electronic components into 3d printed objects as they are being printed. He published the accompanying g-code also so you can adapt it for your projects. he used an example of a Lego block with small led light.

Jun 4, 2015

Stewart Allen designed 3d printable modules that will enable you to print full size furniture like chairs, tables, shelves etc.
It will take some time to print it and I would like to see a price comparison with store bought furniture but there is much more pleasure in making your own stuff :-)

Cliff Mellangård, Swedish 3d printing guru and creator of excellent low cost Funbot 3d printer is developing an all-in-one DIY RepRap based on Raspberry Pi 2. It has a 7 inch LCD screen and when you connect external keyboard and mouse you have a full 3d printing workstation in one machine.

Here is the Funbot Pro presentation video:

Nice work Cliff! Files for it will be probably available soon since it is still in early development stages.

Update:

Here is the first real print of FunBot Pro with further details explained by Cliff:

TechWizAu made a video describing how he uses epoxy to get a smoothing effect without using acetone.
He uses the Z-Poxy PT-39 30 Minute epoxy to get much smoother surface finish. It is a dual component epoxy with the resin and hardener.

Here is how to video with the entire process and some tips:

I was not aware of this technique and it looks much easier then using acetone. I'm not sure what epoxies are available on my local market in Croatia but I will check it out.

Kühling&Kühling, the makers of mighty RepRap Industrial, present new advancements in support materials that are soluble and breakable and give very clean and precise prints. They also perfected the Slic3r settings for support printing.

Here is the video presenting the clean break-away support structures for ABS models.